For the third time in less than two decades, the prestigious Raoul Follereau
Prize has found its way to the African continent.
AFRICANEWS' founder member and world renowned priest-journalist Fr. Kizito
Renato Sesana, has been nominated the 1997 winner of the annual AIFO
(Associazione Italiana Amici di Raoul Follereau) Award.
Fr. Kizito, a Combonian, has done most of his pastoral work in Africa and has
lately been mostly involved in ministering among the Nuba of the Sudan, who are
currently facing a systematic genocide by the government.
The award, christened Raoul Follereau Prize, is every year conferred on a
person or a group of people who have worked in an exemplary way in the defence
of human rights and the edification of justice and peace in the world. The
prize was instituted in 1985 and is awarded by AIFO, an international Non-
Governmental Organisation (NGO) with strong popular support. AIFO has 53 groups
in Italy which is Fr. Kizito's home country. It is represented in 50 countries
with 164 projects.
Raoul Follereau was a French man who dedicated all his life to what many
considered "a lost cause" u the fight against leprosy. In years of commitment,
he brought to the attention of the world the plights of the lepers, obtained
the institution of a "World Leprosy Day", promoted the treatment of hundreds of
thousands of lepers around the world and helped in the complete eradication of
leprosy from many countries. Before dying in 1975, seeing that the battle
against leprosy was on its way to be won, Follereau encouraged the members of
the world wide association he had founded to fight against "other forms of
leprosy, all leprosy"; indifference, human rights abuses, injustice. AIFO has
taken up the heritage of Raoul Follereau.
The committee of the Raoul Follereau Prize has seen in Fr. Kizito, 53, a key
and symbolic representative of entire communities marginalised by an economic,
political and information system which is run by the powerful. In giving the
Prize to Fr. Kizito, they want to denounce the deep injustice on which this
system is founded, and the criminal effects which it derives from. They want to
recognise his ability to write in defence of those marginalised both in the
world and in the church. Fr. Kizito's articles on Sudan and the plight of the
Nuba people have made headlines in Africa, Italy, Germany and Austria. His
organisational ability saw him found and bring to prominence in English
speaking Africa the magazine New People, notable for representing, when it was
edited by him, the most advanced thinking of the African Catholic church. In
his one-year-old news agency, AFRICANEWS, African journalists report on Africa.
In Africa, the Prize has previously been won by Mali's Ali Cisse, for his
promotion of the public health in the country and Albert Tevoedjre, a Togolese
author and human rights activist. Last year, the prestigious award was given to
Monsignor Samuel Ruiz, Bishop of San Cristobal del las Casas in Mexico, for his
action in favour of liberation and justice for the Mexican Indians.
The Raoul Follerau Prize will be officially presented to Fr. Kizito on May 24
in the central Italian town of L'Aquila. As part of the honour, AIFO has
organised for Fr. Kizito an extensive tour of Italy, which will see him speak
in 10 major Italian cities on the future of Africa, war in Sudan, the genocide
of the Nuba people and the need for new information order that will give the
poor and the marginalised the opportunity to speak for themselves. To Fr.
Kizito, the poor "have voice. They have many things to say but the truth is
that they are not allowed to speak. In this situation, the duty of any good
journalist is not to speak on their behalf but to give them back the right to
speak".
This is the official motivation of the 1997 Prize to Father Renato Kizito Sesana
- for his ability to "give voice to those without voice", through the courageous
and prophetic commitment at the constant and passionate service of the truth,
even when the truth is difficult and risky to defend.
- for having opened up channels of information to facts and people who would
otherwise be cut off, as part of a world which "does not make news", tearing
aside the veil of silence and involving people of good will
- for his action standing by those who today are put to the extreme margins of
history, those who see the survival of their culture and of their own life
threatened, in the midst of the indifference or silent complicity of the
international community.
- for being a sign of hope and having opened paths of peace where people can meet
and walk together towards new dawns of justice and brotherhood.
....and Chapita scoops ours!!
Zimbabwean journalist Patrick Chapita is last year's winner of Africanews Best
Story of the Year Prize. Patrick's story, "African churches heal war trauma",
was adjudged the most outstanding contribution for 1996. It appeared on last
May's issue of Africanews and chronicled how the African Independent Churches
in Mozambique are helping child soldiers of that country's civil war heal their
spiritual and psychological wounds. We'll be giving a US$200 cash prize for the
best story of the year. Congratulations Patrick! And keep sending your
articles.
Africanews staff
